There are many businesses today that involve the buying and selling of various types of collectibles: coins, gold or silver bullion bars, art work, sports cards, memorabilia, and the like. The ability to verify that a specific item offered for sale is not a “fake” is problematic, at best. The addition of buying and selling these items over the internet has only led to an increase in untoward business practices in these areas.
There have been various attempts in the past to address these concerns. US Patent Publication 2008/0023351, entitled “Protection, Authentication, Identification Device for a Collectable Object” issued to J. J. Macor on Jan. 31, 2008 describes the utilization of a “protection, authentication, identification device” to encase a collectible object (such as a coin), where the encasement includes a “data storage device” that stores specific ID information about the collectible object. The disclosed “data storage device” may take the form of an RFID tag that holds information including a digital image of the object. An “active” RFID tag (that is, a tag including its own power supply) is required in the Macor device for the volume of information required for digital image storage. Inasmuch as the owner is also the creator of the active RFID tag, a prospective buyer must rely on the owner's integrity that the object offered for sale is indeed the “collectible” it is purported to be. Additionally, while an active RFID tag can hold a relatively large amount of data, it cannot retain a detailed “history” of information and/or a digital image of a collectible object (that is, information such as pedigree, provenance, etc.)—the particular kinds of information a prospective purchaser may be interested in reviewing prior to completing a transaction.
Thus, a need remains for providing a third-party holder of detailed information for collectible objects, where the third party is electronically accessible by both owners and prospective purchasers and allows for prospective purchasers to have a higher level of comfort about the authenticity of a collectible object prior to purchase.
Moreover, there is a need to provide a system of creating and maintaining secure and credible information associated with “large” objects that cannot be encased within an enclosure that incorporates ID information with the object. For example, it may be desired to create and maintain a database of information associated with collectible objects such as cars, paintings, furniture and household items (e.g., china, silver, pottery or the like). To date, there is no system in place that can catalogue and verify the authenticity of large pieces.